A number of industrial applications including, but not limited to, medical devices, communication devices, and navigation systems, as well as scientific areas such as physics and chemistry can benefit from magnetic detection and imaging. Many advanced magnetic imaging systems can operate in limited conditions, for example, high vacuum and/or cryogenic temperatures, which can make them inapplicable for imaging applications that require ambient conditions. Furthermore, low cost, small size, weight and power (CSWAP) magnetic sensors of moderate sensitivity, vector accuracy, and bandwidth are valuable in many applications.
Atomic-sized nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond lattices have been shown to have excellent sensitivity for magnetic field measurement and enable fabrication of small magnetic sensors that can readily replace existing-technology (e.g., Hall-effect, SERF, or SQUID) systems and devices. The sensing capabilities of diamond NV (DNV) sensors are maintained in room temperature and atmospheric pressure and these sensors can be even used in liquid environments (e.g., for biological imaging). Measurement of 3-D vector magnetic fields via (DNV) sensing may be beneficial across a very broad range of applications including communications, geological sensing, two and three dimensional imagery over extended distance, navigation, and attitude determination.
In order to recover the external magnetic field acting on the diamond NV sensor, the orientation of the axes of the diamond lattice of the sensor system should be known. Currently, methods in establishing the orientation of the axes of the diamond lattice are limited to either pre-manufacturing techniques or visual aid inspection. However, these methods may be time consuming, costly, and/or impractical in some instances. For example, during manufacture of the sensor system, the diamond lattice may be mounted to the sensor in such a way that the orientations of the lattice axes are known and established before use of the sensor system. Such a method requires high accuracy and precision in mounting the diamond lattice to the sensor system and may introduce error during the mounting process. In addition, visual aid inspection, such as X-ray diffraction techniques and the like, may not be feasible in cases where the diamond and/or sensor system is hidden from view.